Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may know that a new coronavirus strain has become prevalent in the United Kingdom, and there is currently a strict lockdown in place. Students are advised to not return to their universities until March at the earliest, although there is speculation that lockdown will last even longer than that. What does this mean for students? Well, we’ve all been advised that classes will be online (for all subjects except medicine and other essential in-person courses) until the end of February, at least, and we’ve been told to remain home if possible. All non-essential travel to Scotland has been restricted, and all travellers are required to have a negative COVID-19 test prior to traveling, as well as self-isolate for ten days upon arrival.
As an international student who went home to America over the winter break, I watched the UK seemingly descend into chaos from afar, reading news articles and communicating with my friends who were still in Scotland. I waited anxiously for email updates from the University, and when the news finally came that classes would be online until March at the earliest, I knew I had a difficult decision to make.
The private accommodation I lived in, which had been a saving grace the first semester while my friends in university accommodation were subjected to tighter restrictions, suddenly became a weight on my shoulders. I was paying rent for a flat I wasn’t even using, and may never return to. The previous semester, when the restrictions were less intense, my classes ended up still being online the whole semester (when I flew to Scotland in August, the University hadn’t announced any classes would be online at all). It seemed as though there was very little chance my classes would be in-person at any point in the coming semester, with the way things were starting off. Already the first half of the semester was promised to be online, and even if classes were in-person for the last month or two, would it be worth it to fly back to St Andrews and pay rent for the entire semester, only to be there for a month (after a two week quarantine)?
So, after talking to the staff at my building, who agreed to let me out of my lease with a 28-day warning due to the governmental restrictions preventing me from returning to town, I made the decision to cancel my lease and study online from home for the whole semester. Despite my overwhelming sadness at not being able to return to the university town I loved so much, this weight felt lifted from my shoulders. I had a friend let into my flat, and she packed up my things to be removed.
So why did I make the decision to study from home for the entire semester, while there was still hope to return in March? The biggest reason was financial; for students staying in university accommodation, the university won’t charge them for the months they are not able to be there. However, living in private accommodation, paying six months of rent to maybe live there for only a month or two simply wasn’t worth it. The second reason, though, was one I didn’t completely realize until after I had already made the decision. The sense of security and permanence this gave me was a huge comfort in such a stressful time.
Instead of constantly reading the news and waiting for an email telling me I can come back to school, and booking a flight with little warning to fly suddenly across the ocean, I know where I’m going to be for the next seven months. I can have a sense of structure to my life, instead of avoiding planning ahead more than a couple weeks in case I need to fly back to Scotland on short notice. I can get a part-time job; I can buy all of my books for the semester instead of buying them week-to-week so I don’t have to fly with too many. It’s the small things, the stability of spending the entire semester in one place instead of constantly being on call to go back.
Staying home wouldn’t be the right decision for everyone. I’m lucky enough to have a home environment where I have a space to study and attend online classes with no distractions. And if I had been living in university accommodation, where I didn’t have to worry about the cost of not being there, I probably would’ve waited to go back when I could. This definitely isn’t what I thought my life would look like a year ago, or even a few months ago. But I think that something we’ve all learned this year is that you can never predict how things will turn out, and you just have to go with the flow and make the right decisions for yourself (when you can).